FBC Morning Light – January 7, 2023

Faith Baptist Church

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Good Saturday morning, people of faith.

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This morning's reading is Genesis chapter 13 and chapter 14.

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We're going to be in chapter 14. And just so you know, every

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Saturday we will be doing this, where we go through two chapters from the

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Old Testament. And that's part of our yearly Bible reading plan. And so here we are in Genesis chapter 14.

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Let me read verses 18 through 20. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

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He was the priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be

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Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be

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God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tithe of all.

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Now this is our main passage in the Old Testament of where we learn about Melchizedek.

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And the book of Hebrews has some things to say about Melchizedek. And we're going to look a little bit at that in Hebrews 5 through 7.

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And let's just remember the purpose of the book of Hebrews was to encourage

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Jewish Christians who were considering leaving the faith, and at the same time to show that Jesus is better than anything they could have in Jesus' place.

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And here we're going to talk about why Jesus is better.

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And I'm going to try and give you two reasons for that. First of all, Melchizedek, his name and what he was.

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He is king of Salem, which means king of peace. And his name means king of righteousness.

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He is without beginning in the Old Testament. He just comes out of nowhere. And he doesn't have, there's no story about the end of his life.

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So it can be said about Melchizedek that he is without beginning and without end.

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Jesus is without beginning and without end.

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And that is one thing that makes Jesus better than anything you could ever replace him with.

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Secondly, the Jewish people had a priesthood. It was through Aaron.

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We say the Aaronic priesthood. However, however, who did

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Abraham give tithes to? He gave tithes to Melchizedek.

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All right, it's the first instant in the Old Testament of having a tithe. But Abraham recognized the greatness of Melchizedek and gave a tithe to Melchizedek saying, you're worthy of me giving this to you.

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So how does that relate to Jesus having a better priesthood than the

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Levites? Well, where were the Levites when Abram made his offering to Melchizedek?

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He was still in the loins of Abram, had not been born yet.

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But we have here in a picture form the idea that all of Abram's descendants, including the

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Levites, gave a tithe to Melchizedek the greater.

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And who is Melchizedek? Our priest in the order of Melchizedek is none other than Christ himself.

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And that's the second thing that makes Christ better than anything you could replace him with today.

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Let's think on these things as we go throughout our Saturday and let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.

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Thank you for the encouragement that you are better, that you are a priest according to the order of Melchizedek without beginning and without end.

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And that you are our heavenly priest who has the power and the right to bring us to God.

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Help us walk with you this day. It's in your son's name, Jesus, that we pray, amen.